The Cancer Check Test You Can Take Right This Second

All you need is a cotton ball

My nails are wearing nail polish about 99.5 percent of time. The other 0.5 percent is that 20-minute-ish period between removing my polish and deciding what color to paint on next. I'll weigh the pros and cons of dark vs. light and Deborah Lipmann vs. Essie, all while cringing at my bare nails. Whether it's the creepy red tint that comes after wearing OPI's Fire Engine Red for a week, or that sickly yellow tint of nails that haven't seen the light of day in weeks, it's just, blegh -- I can't wait to cover it all up a fresh coat of polish.

But recently, I had a groundbreaking three-day stint of going naked -- all-natural nails for a full 72 hours. And that's when I really had time to stop and think about it: Wait -- is that yellow tint normal? Or am I just rationalizing my polish addiction? Can continuously suffocating my nails with a chemical substance, which also suffocates my boyfriend (or so he complains), really be OK? Is my nail polish covering up signs of cancer?! Is it giving me cancer?!
I had two choices: have a panic attack every time I pull out the nail polish remover, or talk to dermatologist (and nail whisperer) Dr. Chynna Steele, a dermatologist in the Atlanta area. I went with the latter.

Steele told me the shape, texture and tint of your natural nails all offer important clues to what's happening in your body, including serious, sometimes even deadly underlying health issues ... and yes, your nail polish may be covering those warning signs up. So, should we give our nails a breather? Remove your polish and click ahead to see if your natural nails are trying to tell you something.